Women ARE safer drivers, and science can help them pay less for insurance

Published:06:46Sunday 11 November 2012

New analysis based on the driving performance of 19,000 drivers, over 40 million journeys and 154 million miles of travel has found categorically that women are better drivers than men.

Putting aside historical accident statistics, trends and estimations used by insurers, looking at actual, every day driving behaviour, women are significantly safer drivers than men.

With fears that women’s car insurance premiums will rise following the EU Gender Directive coming into play next month, the analysis demonstrates how many females drivers could benefit from cheaper premiums if they switched to a telematics-based insurance product.

The analysis from Wunelli, the telematics solutions provider for the insurance industry, found that women drivers are 20 per cent safer than men, speed 12 per cent less and brake hard 11 per cent less.

Wunelli chairman Sandy Dunn said: “Motor insurance rates to date have been based on estimations, trends and averages gathered and analysed over many years.

“When the EU Gender Directive comes into play, insurers will need to rely more heavily on the postcode of the driver and the car type being driven to determine the premium.

“For some women this won’t be a bad thing, but others could see their premiums rocketing.

“Telematics-based insurance products mean motorists can be insured based on how they actually drive instead of being based on average behaviour.

“Up to now, because premiums for women drivers have been relatively low compared to those for men, the take up of telematics-based products amongst female drivers has been slow, comprising around 30 per cent of all telematics policies.

“We believe this will change as some women, typically those that are younger and driving more powerful vehicles, start to see more of a stark price difference between a conventional motor policy and a telematics based policy when they shop around come renewal time.

“The really interesting point about telematics is that once you start analysing the data in an aggregated form, we get a very clear picture of how the UK’s roads are being used, from the roads where people speed the most to the car models least likely to have an accident.

“This information is already being used by selected insurers to enrich existing policyholder data to provide more accurate pricing of insurance policies.

“And of course, the more people take up telematics policies, the more conscious they will be of their driving behaviour and the safer our roads will become.”

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